Viral hemorrhagic encephalopathy of rats.

A virus has been isolated and serially passed in suckling rats; it causes an acute fatal paralysis associated with hemorrhage and necrosis in the brain and spinal cord. The agent is relatively resistant to heat and ether, is about 20 millimicrons in diameter, and is antigenically closely related to rat virus. Its isolation resulted from the study of occasional cases of paralysis in adult rats after administration of cyclophosphamide.